Civilization 4 Multiplayer Hands-on

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Gather your friends for another addictive injection of strategy from the folks at Firaxis.

By Dan Adams

When it comes to addiction, we're pretty educated. Not only are we all drunks and sex addicts, but we write about video games. Unless you've felt the nasty twinge associated with being away from your computer or TV for too long, you're not really fit for this job. And as any of us PC guys will tell you (along with several of the console guys as well) there are very few games quite as addictive as the Civilization franchise. Pretty much all of us remember Civilization II more fondly than any of the others and definitely lost more time to it. Civilization III was still great, but made things even more complicated and difficult in some key areas that cut the lust down to a dull roar. But now that we've had the chance to play Civilization IV multiplayer for a bit, the ache is certainly returning. Even though the stay at Firaxis was only a few hours long, it was heart-wrenching to have to abandon the battle and climb back on a plane to get home.

Lets be clear about this. There are a lot of differences between Civilization III and IV beyond even the most obvious addition of the 3D game environment. The interface has been made much simpler for diplomacy and civ management in general, combat is more intuitive, units can be upgraded like crazy, religion takes a much bigger role, and non-combative strategies are very viable options for success. But the biggest change, something most important for this multiplayer preview, is the way that the game was constructed. This fourth game in the series was built from the ground up as a multiplayer experience. No more "tacked-on" feeling with this. From the way the game plays, it's pretty evident that they really took a lot of issues into consideration.

There are several different ways to play multiplayer in the game, including options about victory conditions, starting technologies, and so on, but there are also several different ways to play such as hot seat, email, and simultaneous rounds. We played simultaneous rounds throughout the day, which created a much different gaming atmosphere than what players might be used to in single player. I didn't really think it was possible for the pace of a Civlization game to be turned up a notch, but Firaxis has succeeded. Not necessarily because of how fast rounds can pass (timers can be set so players can't sit fiddling for hours between turns), but because of how smooth everything plays.

Even when a couple of the computers pooped out (apparently not on purpose but serving as a demonstration of the server tech very well), the game simply paused and popped up a question (on a screen marked "Democracy") for the rest of the players to vote on what to do. The vote is either kick that player and replace with AI, save the game and continue playing until that other player can join in, or simply wait for the other player to re-connect to the server and claim his place. It makes playing less of a hassle since games can easily be saved, even in dire circumstances. Considering how involved a game of Civ can get, especially in a multiplayer game where players have been talking trash, building alliances, and sinking some emotional involvement into the game, this seemingly small process could be a lifesaver.